She suffered a severe neuroelectric shock,” Lense said, looking away from the diagnostic screen to face Gold and Gomez, who stood on the other side of the biobed, eyes fixed on Corsi, who lay unconscious. “Her central nervous system was badly disrupted, and there was damage in her prefrontal lobe and motor cortex. I’ve repaired most of the major problems, but she’s still comatose.”

“For how long?” Gold said.

“Hours. Days. Maybe the rest of her life.”

Gold shook his head, unable to find words for his dismay.

“Can you tell if this was caused by a natural phenomenon or a weapon?” Gomez asked. Lense shook her head.

“Hard to say. There was no specific point of impact, so I’d say it wasn’t a directed attack. But I really can’t rule out any possibility.”

Gold glanced at Lense. “Let me know the moment anything changes,” he said, gesturing toward Corsi.

Lense nodded. “Of course.”

Gomez stayed at Gold’s shoulder as he took a few steps away from the biobed, then paused. “Bring the rest of the away team to observation in ten minutes,” he said quietly.

“Aye, sir.” Gomez exited quickly. Gold lingered in sickbay for a moment, then moved toward the door. He stepped into the corridor, then looked back. He watched silently as Lense stood over her patient and gently stroked a wayward lock of blond hair from Corsi’s temple.

The sickbay door slid shut, and Gold found himself alone in the corridor. If Corsi didn’t make it, she would not be the first person to die in the line of duty under his command. But bitter experience had taught him that each loss affected him differently—especially when it was someone he considered a friend.

*  *  *

Stevens was the last member of the away team to reach the briefing room. “Sorry I’m late,” he said, his voice quavering with what Gold surmised was suppressed worry over Corsi. “I just stopped in sickbay to—”

“Stevens,” Gold said in a tone of voice that was deliberately gruff, “what’s the Orion’s status? When can we pull her out of here?” The verbal slap seemed to have the effect Gold had sought. With effort, Stevens regained his composure and looked his captain in the eye.

“She’s got severe structural damage at most of her major stress points, sir,” Stevens said. “The engineering section is completely compromised, and the primary hull has enough damage that if we try to attach towing lines, she’ll just rip in half.”

Gold turned his gaze toward P8. “You would agree?”

P8 uttered a brief series of clicking noises. “Yes, Captain,” P8 said. “Stevens is correct. We will not be able to tow the Orion using duranium cables.”

“What about this light you and Stevens encountered? How did it disrupt power and comms?”

“Unknown. We were unable to scan the phenomenon,” P8 said.

“We need to know if it was a natural event,” Gold said. “It could just be an atmospheric effect caused by the Wildfire device. But if it’s a weapon…. Did it show any sign of intelligent control?”

Stevens and P8 looked at each other. Stevens shook his head, and P8 waved two sets of arms in a gesture equivalent to a humanoid shrug. “We really can’t be sure, sir,” Stevens said.

“Can you tell me anything about it? Anything definite?”

“It was bright,” P8 said.

Gold frowned, then aimed his furrowed brow at Soloman. “Were you able to recover the Orion’s logs?”

“Not all of them,” Soloman said. “I downloaded the flight data and most of the primary sensor logs. The mission was aborted before I could copy the crew’s official and personal logs, which you indicated were low-priority.”

“I understand,” Gold said. “Good work. Have McAllan start analyzing them as soon as possible.”

“He’s already started, sir.”

“Since we can’t tow the Orion back to orbit, our only priority now is to recover the Wildfire device,” Gold said to everyone as he activated the monitor on the wall behind his chair. It showed a map of the planet’s atmospheric currents. An ominous patch of shifting reds and oranges, indicating violent thermal disturbances, lay ahead of the da Vinci’s projected course.

“We don’t have much time,” Gold said. “We and the Orion are being pulled toward some nasty weather that leads down to the deepest layers of the atmosphere. Orion probably won’t survive the trip. We have about thirty minutes to go over there, get the warhead, and get back. Blue, you’ll be flying Duffy back to the Orion. Bring him back safely, please.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Duffy, stay behind a moment. Everyone else, dismissed.” Gold and Duffy waited while the rest of the group filed out of the briefing room.

Gold handed a padd to Duffy. “These are the security codes for the Wildfire device. Don’t reveal them to anyone.”

Duffy stared at the padd and scrutinized the codes. “Fairly standard,” Duffy said matter-of-factly. Gold regarded the young officer with a grave expression.

“Duffy, before Corsi’s transmission was cut off, she told Gomez she believed the device had been armed. If that’s true, you’ll need all sixteen of those codes to shut it down.”

“No problem.”

“I don’t want any heroics from you, Duffy. If you don’t think you can shut it down before Orion hits the vortex, get out of there. Once the device hits detonation depth, we’ll have less than three hours to get out of orbit.”“

How long will it take the device to reach detonation depth?”

“What, I’m a fortune-teller? Depending on the size of the thermal vortex, it might reach the core in an hour, a day, or never. But if you’re aboard the Orion when it takes that ride, it’ll be a one-way ticket. Understand?”

“Perfectly, sir.”

“Good. Get down to the shuttle bay and suit up. You have three minutes.” Duffy followed Gold out the door into the corridor, where they turned in opposite directions. Duffy stopped Gold with a question.

“Why me, sir?”

“Excuse me?” Gold said, turning to face him.

“Why did you pick me for this mission?”

“Your experience with protomatter-based systems and your ability to perform well under pressure.”

“Oh,” Duffy said, a bit embarrassed. “I thought you were going to say ‘Why not.’”

Gold nodded and answered over his shoulder as he walked away. “That was my other answer. Two minutes and thirty seconds, Duffy. Don’t be late.”